Armed robbery Friday night at East Norwalk gas station

Published 5:58 pm, Saturday, January 7, 2017

NORWALK – Two robbers apparently made their escape by crossing railroad tracks in East Norwalk Friday night after holding up a gas station's Dunkin Donuts outlet.

Police received three holdup alarms from the Shorehaven Mobil gas station, 219 East Ave., at 10:50 p.m. The first officers on scene confirmed two men wearing masks held the clerk at the Dunkin Donuts counter at gunpoint, and made off with cash, cigarettes and the clerk's cellphone.

Numerous patrol officers began searching the area for the pair, described as white males wearing purple ski masks, with one holding a silver handgun.

A pedestrian on Fitch Street told an officer he observed two or three men with flashlights walking along the New Haven Line railroad tracks about 45 minutes earlier, but didn't think that was unusual.

The Mobil station backs up to the tracks, and Fitch Street runs adjacent to the tracks on the opposite side.

K-9 Officer Richard Montañez and his service dog Kai tracked a scent from the gas station eastbound along the railroad tracks to the area of Fitch Street and Strawberry Hill Avenue.

The track then continued westbound on Fitch Street, where Montañez located a discarded purple ski mask. The dog lost the scent on Fitch Street, where the robbers may have entered a vehicle, police said.

Detectives responded to the gas station and took over investigating of the incident.